"Yes, yes, surely; but you can't distrust your own eyes. And over there on the other side--I said it would--the dike is broken."

I shrugged my shoulders. "You will have to think that over in bed. Good night, dikemaster."

The next morning, in the golden sunlight that shone over wide ruin, I rode down to the city on the Hauke-Haien dike.

[TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS]

A BERLIN NOVEL

BY

THEODOR FONTANE

TRANSLATED FROM THE FOURTEENTH EDITION

BY KATHARINE ROYCE

[BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE]